


Barren

by knightofsass



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Sburb, asexy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-07-14 04:11:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7152998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightofsass/pseuds/knightofsass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If our universe was mostly sterile, what happened to the other players who entered their Mediums, outside of the kids the story focuses on? I like to think they'd like to help out. This is just a story that's been kickin around in my head, I figure it's about time to let it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prelude

"But we have to do something. We have to help them!" John looked at his friends pleadingly. "Right?"

They looked at each other, looked to the floor, but they wouldn't look at him. He was despondent. He turned to go...

"John wait!" Roxy ran toward him, arm outstretched. "We can do it. We have all the time in the universes now right? We can steal the lack of a happy ending for everyone, I know we can! But we need a plan."

John slowly smiled. He knew that with the help of everyone else, especially Roxy, nothing was impossible.

See, their universe was sterile, technically. It had cancer. It wasn't supposed to give rise to a new universe, but after years of hard work, they were able to do it. But John couldn't help but think of everyone else who played the game, who got a copy of Sburb and happily started it with their friends, only to find themselves in a doomed, infertile Medium. He couldn't shake the feeling that he could help. He's unstuck in spacetime, right? Why couldn't he try what he could so that everyone could have the happy ending, everyone could live together in the new universe? Not to mention that it could help with some of the low population effects Dirk kept rattling off about, genetic drift and bottlenecks and other things John didn't really understand. 

They had brought the consorts, the carapacians, and the trolls to their new universe. Why not the rest of the players from their universe, too?


	2. Noah

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another iteration of the same universe, another set of players.

Noah sat in his room, looking out of the window and chewing on a pencil. He sighed and turned back to his laptop. He pounded out a few more paragraphs before checking Facebook, then Instagram, then Snapchat on his phone, back to Facebook...He checked his phone again. He still hadn't heard from his mom. It had been a few days now. She always told him not to worry when she was gone, that she'd be back soon. But he knew more than she realized, and he knew to worry.

A notification popped up on his chat client. Noah wrinkled his nose. This girl was bugging him all the time recently. She wanted a host of characters to play some game with her. Normally he would want to, he really would. But he was having a hard time snapping his mind to the present. He sends her a curt reply, yes I know you want me to play that game, no I didn't say I wouldn't, just give me some time. That seems to placate her for now. He goes back to his writing.

He wakes up still slouched over his computer. He must have fallen asleep writing, but his light is turned off now. He blinks blearily and returns to the present, looking around his room. He hears someone downstairs. He cautiously, slowly gets up and crawls towards his door silently. It's probably his mom, but he's not sure. And if it is her, he doesn't want her to know he can hear her.

He can't hear much. He thinks it's her. He only hears one voice, he thinks she's on the phone, she sounds angry, upset, though she's not quite yelling. He listens until she stops talking, until he hears her walk away from the living room into her own bedroom. Only when he's sure she's inside does he push himself away from the door.

He lets out a deep breath he didn't realize he was holding. She may be upset, maybe even angry, but she's ok. That much he's thankful for. She doesn't know that he knows that she's part of the resistance. At least, he doesn't think she does. It would be best if he didn't, more safe. But he has a way of figuring out.

As he crawls into bed, he reaches for his phone. 2:34 am. Before he sleeps, he sends one message, to the girl who he was chatting with before.

"I'm ready."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyy introducing people and trying out character development. Learning curve is hard and uncomfortable and being a beginner sucks! But I guess we all start somewhere and that might as well be a bad, confusing fan fiction, right?


	3. Amy

Amy woke up with a smile and a stretch. She was well rested, the sun was streaming through her window-what more could she want? She leaned over towards her desk to grab her phone, and to her delight, she had a text from Noah! She frowned when she noticed the time-2:30 am? Really?-but opened it with glee anyway. He's going to play the game! Yes! That's all of her best friends now, they've all agreed to play! She smiled but mulled a little over her response. She couldn't look too excited. Better to tone it down. "I knew you'd come around ;)" was what she eventually settled on. That would work. Satisfied, she set her phone down and jumped out of bed. She had work to do.  
She cracked her door open and peeped out. No one home. Excellent. She closed and locked her door, sat at her laptop, cracked her knuckles, and got to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thx for the kudos and kind comment! It actually motivated me to get off my butt and work on this instead of letting it fester, so thank you!  
> PS I'm also on tumblr, knightofsass.tumblr.com, follow me!!


	4. Cassie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which another character is introduced and nothing important happens.

Cassie Corin was a mystery, even to her best friends. Of course, it was easy to be a mystery when you made all of your friends over the Internet. She could be anyone she wanted to be there, and she knew it. Did they know it? She tried not to think about it.

She scrolled through her Tumblr, reblogging the perfect aesthetics. She wanted to look clean, neat, sophisticated. As perfect and manicured as possible. She couldn't let anything ruin her image.

She was interrupted by a text message. Amy. Of course. It was always Amy fussing over her these days. She wanted to play some damn multiplayer game, some World of Warcraft bullshit or something. Cassie obliged to make her friend happy. She could handle a role-playing game, hiding behind the visage of a sleek paladin or stealthy rogue. Amy tried to insist that the game was more immersive than that, and Cassie couldn't help but roll her eyes. The game would be exactly what she molded it to be, whether the rest knew or not.

Cassie narrowed her eyes at the next message. "u know ur so will be playing too ;)" Cassie hastily tapped out a reply. "They're not my "so," Amy, and I think you know that." Cassie tossed her phone on her bed and leaned back, covering her eyes with a sigh. She didn't bother to check the reply. She didn't need to deal with Amy's teasing right now. She had her own online world to build and carefully maintain. She ignored the incessant buzzing of her phone and went back to maintaining her online kingdom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're interested in other people's jokes and occasional overly-personal moaning, check out my Tumblr! http://knightofsass.tumblr.com/

**Author's Note:**

> A little setup I suppose. This is a v rough work in progress and I'll probably pound it out real quick so sorry if storytelling is shoddy lmao. <3 Also sorry if the premise doesn't make sense to literally anybody but me...


End file.
